


Sliver Shana

by EchoDance



Category: Rain World (Video Game)
Genre: All but one of the charcaters is an oc, Gen, I can take one character who is only mentioned by name and give her a story, I don't even know anymore, Mention of possible suicide, Pre-Canon, Suicidal Thoughts, probably not canon compliant, why am i like this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2020-10-11 20:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20551991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoDance/pseuds/EchoDance
Summary: How did Sliver of Straw die? What lead up to it? What was she like? I'm hoping to answer these questions, and maybe we'll see that everyone was wrong about something they thought was true.





	1. Chapter 1

Sliver of Straw was by any definition, not a normal Iterator, mostly as her status of being one of the first to ever be made, she was entirely experimental, not like the others in many ways. Not like the three other experimental Iterators in her local group. She didn’t have the same task as them, all her task was at all, was to maintain a garden on the top of her can.

Being the most experimental was the reason, none of the ancients wanted to have wasted the resources only to have her be straining under stress, so they made her a garden. A garden that wouldn’t be flooded every cycle, and even if it did, it would be fine. The Garden would be safe as long as she existed, for which she hoped to be a long long time.

She knew some of her fellows yearned for death, though she couldn’t quite understand that personally, her closest friend told her often about what the others said when she wasn’t in the conversations, she didn’t talk much to the others in the group. Just enough to make her opinion known in any important discussion.

Speaking of which, there was a chat going on right now, and Sliver couldn’t help herself about seeing who was in.

_ SoS has joined the chat. _

_ BloodyRain: Anyways all I was saying is that I’m Not Alright, and all this talk about Death isn’t Helping _

_ BloodyRain has left the chat. _

_ ShadedN: Hey Sliver, sorry you had to see that _

_ SoS: It’s all right. just wanted to see if you were here _

_ GoldVic: Yo! She speaks. _

_ SoS: yes i do, just didn’t have a reason to talk to you, sorry _

_ ShadedN: It’s just us right now, we were talking about death, Rain actually started it and now she’s blaming us for continuing the discussion. _

_ GoldVic: So are you just going to lurk now? Quite alright, Tempest might come back and we can resume what we were talking about before. _

_ ShadedN: While we’re here do you want to tell us about your garden? Also Tempest? Victor I didn’t think you two had much to talk about _

_ GoldVic: We have more in common than you’d think. _

_ SoS: There’s some new growth on the western half, that’s good after the parasitic infestation a while back, i might have needed to send some gatherers down for new seeds if it didn’t grow back, my plants are a hardy bunch that’s for sure. _

_ GoldVic: Wait, so all I have to do to get you to open up is to ask about your garden? That seems too simple of a think for someone as quiet as you. _

_ SoS: there’s some new flowers that bloomed a while ago, they’re really pretty, one of the gatherers brought one to my puppet just so i could see it up close, it’s too bad that it broke after the gatherer held the stem too firmly. they are really delicate from what i can tell. _

_ ShadedN: I guess you didn’t get a picture then _

_ SoS: nope, wish i did though, i think you would like it Nights. _

_ ShadedN: Probably, you were right about that last one. What did you call it again? _

_ SoS: Shaded Shana, after you and some word i made up to describe it. _

_ ShadedN: Yeah, what does Shana mean again? _

_ TempStor has joined the chat. _

_ SoS: shana means fading or flying away, hi Tempest. _

_ TempStor: Hey. Goldie back to what we were saying before Rain came along and told me to leave, if you could go anywhere at all and see it for yourself, where would you want to most? _

_ ShadedN: Hi Tempest. _

_ GoldVic: Probably Sliver’s garden, she got really talkative about it when Nights asked her about it, like, really talkative. I’ve seen more words from her just now than all the times I’ve seen her talk before. Makes me wonder what it really looks like. _

_ SoS: oh sorry if that was too much. _

_ TempStor: Wow, Sliver talking? Must be a great place if she got so excited about it, better than what we’ve got anyways. _

_ ShadedN: Can confirm, Sliver’s garden is the best, she’s shown me pictures _

_ SoS: please, you all are making me embarrassed, i can’t help that i was given a garden. _

_ GoldVic: Yeah true, but you’re still very lucky to have it. _

_ TempStor: Can you show me the pictures Nights? _

_ ShadedN: Yes hold on _

_ SoS: i’m going to leave now, i’m not upset just very _

_ SoS: i don’t know how to describe it, sorry. _

_ SoS has left the chat. _

Sliver felt warm, like she always was when she got emotional for one reason or another. She had to leave big discussions often to avoid overheating herself, she always got too wrapped up in the other’s emotions or got too overwhelmed by her own. She didn’t tell that to the others though, they’d only worry, Nights in particular might worry herself into sending one of her birds over to check on her on a near constant basis.

It didn’t take long for some of the denizens of her Garden to wonder why she was so warm and come check on her puppet. There were some gatherers, like scavengers from what she was aware of the outside world, but more willing to listen to her and do what she asked of them. Some slugcat like creatures, most normal slugcats stayed away for a reason Sliver wasn’t aware of, these ones were more snake-like, so she called them snakecats. A few others as well that were too odd for Sliver to categorize at the moment.

Most left after seeing her puppet was fine, the ones who stayed behind were only 2 snakecats and a gentle lizard that came by for pets every once and awhile, it wasn’t a predatory lizard but somehow survived, and now it was at her puppet’s feet practically begging for pets. She gave it what it wanted in silence, not unusual for her and the snakecats left after a while. As she calmly peted the lizard she calmed down emotionally as well.

It was only a few minutes of lizard scratching before she was calm enough to look back in the chat, only to find that it had ended during lizard scratching, ah well, worth it in her opinion, she would just ask Nights what happened after she left during their next private conversation. For now it was just time for the lizard to get its pets.

Sliver could only just hear the rain starting to fall, she nudged the lizard away before it would drown, just because the Garden was safe didn’t mean her puppet’s room was safe from the rain, well, it mostly was, but she didn’t want to take any chances for the affectionate lizard.

Sliver herself could wait out the rain, and who knew, maybe one of the others could talk for a bit with her, out of all the others in the area that they could talk among, Rain was the worst to deal with but Sliver could put up with her. Tempest was fine, even if he could be a bit pushy for what he wants. Victor was more manageable than Rain, though they were a bit caty with who they spoke with most of the time. Nights was the best hands down, her best friend.

There were others of course, Wise, Star, Shard, Ace, and a few more, though Sliver only saw them occasionally when she peeked into chats, so she didn’t have a good opinion on many of them. She’d like that to change eventually, but right now she wasn’t sure how to start talking to them, so she didn’t.

She listened to the rain while she waited, and found it peaceful, if she could have, she would probably fall asleep to it. But that was a thing unattainable to her, so she just listened to it and watched it with her overseers in the Garden, looking out and spotting the far away silhouettes of her fellows.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I introduce some characters here.

It was mostly quiet while she waited, and while waiting she found herself entertaining the thoughts she didn’t understand. What would it be like to die? Did dying hurt? Was it sudden? Like the fragile flower? Or was it slow like the parasitized plants in her garden? Those kinds of questions swam through her thoughts, but she didn’t want to know the answer, at least she thought she didn’t.

Sliver was conflicted by her thoughts, and wondered if that’s how Rain felt all the time, so conflicted. In her confliction, she sought out the thoughts and began to shape them like flowers, to shape her thoughts harmless was something she did to calm them and make sense of them, they were thorned flowers, but still flowers. Roses in her mind’s garden that weren’t to be disturbed, they were there but not to be bothered, fine to look at but dangerous to the touch, harmless when not acted upon.

She’d rather not have them but they were there now, roots in place and too thickly entwined to other thought flowers to be removed safely or confidently. Not intrusive per say, but noticeable, sharp and unlike her other flowers, which were soft and light with dappled petals, the rose didn’t look like it belonged.

Sliver was eyeing her mind’s garden when Nights opened a conversation, a private one that only they could see, one that couldn’t be saved to a pearl directly, it would have to be an image saved.

_ 20 Shaded Nights opened the chat. _

_ SoS has joined the chat. _

_ ShadedN: A nice evening isn’t it Sliver? _

_ SoS: yep. _

_ ShadedN: So, now that it’s just us, do you think you could tell me why you left? _

_ SoS: i don’t think so, it would only make you worry, and i don’t want to bother you with trivial things. _

_ ShadedN: That just makes me more concerned, if you think I’d be worried about it that makes me feel like I should be. Please Sliver _

_ SoS: i’m sorry Nights, i can’t control it and there’s nothing you could do. _

_ SoS: i think at least. _

_ ShadedN: Sliver, even if I can’t do anything about it, telling me would be a good thing, so I know if something could be wrong. Please _

Sliver thought before replying, she didn’t want to let on about her actual problem, it was her problem, Nights didn’t need to be concerned about her, but, Nights was her friend, maybe she could help, at the least she could support her. The roses in her garden seemed to be gloating, but any plant can be removed with determination and help from others.

_ SoS: it’s a physical thing, i just get heated when my emotions get too strong. it’s never gotten dangerous but it might sometime. _

_ ShadedN: That’s it? I’m glad it’s like that, not something more serious that you can’t avoid _

_ SoS: is it though? i can’t stay in a chat with the others for long times and it’s only you i feel comfortable enough to talk to for extended periods. _

_ ShadedN: It’s fine, at least for now, and probably for a long time. There’s another chat going on right now if you want to see what’s going on there, maybe get an opinion on some of the others _

_ SoS: that sounds nice, but if i leave you’ll know why right? _

_ ShadedN: Yep _

And with that ending she disengaged from the private chat, having it disappear forever, except in her memories. Now to calm down before seeing this new chat because even though she wasn’t too emotional, it wouldn’t hurt to do.

With that quick breather she engaged in the public chat, not to speak perhaps but to observe.

_ SoS has joined the chat _

_ SNO: Uhhg I hate having my puppet’s room flooded, like, Iknow it’s an inevitability and it doesn’t hurt me, it just bothers me. _

_ BloodyRain: I know Right? _

_ PkStar: I can’t get that sorry, just don’t get flooded _

_ SNO: Lucky. _

_ SNO: Whois this SoS? _

_ ShadedN: Sliver of Straw, she doesn’t talk much Owl. Also she’s my friend and I don’t think she’d appreciate one of your interrogations. _

_ BloodyRain: Yeah normally I Don’t mind but I know Her and please Don’t Owl, you won’t even get anything out of it. _

_ SNO: But it’s boring without it, ever since we lost touch with the industrial group aside from Star, keep me updated with that by the way, it’s so boring without anyone to pester. _

_ PkStar: I am seriously reconsidering being your gossip scavenger, there’s a lot of personal stuff going on there _

_ SoS: industrial group? _

_ SNO: Oh hi, I’ll answer that if you answer some of my questions. _

_ ShadedN: OWL! The industrial group is by the shoreline, it’s got a lot more drama according to Owl but I never much minded them, Star’s the only one close enough to be part of both our group and the industrial group now _

_ PkStar: Yeah, not the most talkative bunch anyways, at least to me _

_ BloodyRain: You’re not the most Talkative either Star. _

_ PkStar: True _

_ SNO: You guys ruined it, bye. _

_ SNO left the chat _

_ BloodyRain: Good Riddance _

_ PkStar: What’s that word Rain? I’ve never heard it before. _

_ BloodyRain: I think it means to be Glad someone’s leaving. _

_ Flafe has joined the chat _

_ PkStar: Hi Ace, you still picked a stupid chat name _

_ Flafe: I know and I have regrets, _

_ ShadedN: What were you even going for? Flafe sounds so dumb _

_ Flafe: I KNOW IT SOUNDS DUMB! I think I was going to go for Flare or something not like my name, Ace of Hearts, _

_ PkStar: It’s still silly though. _

_ Kryshar: I know I haven’t been talking much but oh wow it’s Flafe. _

_ Flafe: Shut up Shard. _

_ Kryshar: what are you going to do Flafe? Yell at me? _

_ Flafe has left the chat _

_ BloodyRain: Wow, Shard he wasn’t bothering anyone why did you Do that? _

_ Kryshar: same reason everyone made fun of Flafe. _

_ ShadedN: We weren’t so mean about it though _

_ Kryshar: whatever _

_ Wisdom has joined the chat _

_ Wisdom: Greetings everyone I hope all is going well here. _

_ BloodyRain: Nope Shard just bullied Ace into Leaving the chat to boost his Ego. _

_ Wisdom: Oh, I hope Ace of Hearts will be alright in his mind following this. 6 Crystal Shards I am very disappointed in you. _

_ Kryshar: Like I care. _

_ ShadedN: Hi Wisdom, it’s nice to see you. _

_ Wisdom: It is nice to see you too 20 Shaded Nights, is Sliver of Straw here as well? _

_ SoS: yes, hi _

_ BloodyRain: Hi Wisdom. _

_ Wisdom: How have you been Comes Bloody Rain? _

_ BloodyRain: It’s been fine, A bit of mental Stress but otherwise fine. It’s been a while since you’ve been in a chat, so how have you been? _

_ Wisdom: All has been well for me, I have taken time off of speaking to others to meditate upon my existence. _

_ PkStar: Oh hi Wisdom I wasn’t paying attention _

_ PkStar: How was the meditation? _

_ Wisdom: It was a peaceful experience Watcher of Pale Stars, I hope you have been well while I was away. _

_ PkStar: I have. _

_ Wisdom: How have you been Sliver of Straw? _

_ SoS: i’ve been fine Wise. _

_ Wisdom: I will respond to private chats now, I only wished to check up on the Iterators here before returning to my silence in contemplation. _

_ Wisdom has left the chat _

_ ShadedN: It’s nice to have them back _

_ BloodyRain: Yep, they’re nice to talk to. _

_ SoS: i’m going to go check on my garden now, bye. _

_ ShadedN: Bye _

_ SoS has left the chat _

The rain sounded like it had stopped or at least calmed greatly, she couldn’t hear it anymore and it was close to the time to tend to her garden, checking for parasites, monitoring growth, water level, soil acidity, seeing new plants that came with the winds or gatherers, and all sorts of other things, it may have been less complicated than a city, but it was still work to be done.

The lizard was following her overseers as she observed the garden with them, climbing up to them and touching its snout to them when it could, though she usually whisked them away before it could, her overseers were fragile and she didn’t know if they could take too many lizard touches. The gatherers were more calm with them, moving out of the way when they were observing something, and mostly looking back before continuing with whatever task they’d been doing before.

It was always a little odd looking through her overseers, she didn’t know how the others found it but it always felt weird to her, like looking through eyes that weren’t her own, even though they were. She would have asked the others but her responsibilities were demanding her attention right now, maybe she would ask later, but for now she’d simply tend to her garden while observing the others from her garden, wondering who was who. The roses in her mind had been forgotten for now, and they were just that for now, Roses, harmless to look at, painful to the touch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me who you like most at the moment I definitely won't do anything with that information.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens and Sliver looks outside.

There was nothing unusual in her garden, no parasites infesting the trees of her garden, no toxicity in the soil that would kill her flowers, no carnivorous plants that would hunt the fauna of her garden. The snakecats had squirreled themselves away to where she couldn’t find them, but she wasn’t bothered about that, they were harmless to her garden, at least she thought, she wasn’t sure.

It was a quiet whisper at the back of her mind, the roses of death were visible once more, with their wondering and questions, it made her curious but Sliver was reluctant to find the answers. With the sigh of her puppet she decided to talk to Wisdom, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to, it was just that Wisdom was sometimes hard to get a hold of, either they were talking to someone else, or in a main chat.

She would have if Nights didn’t contact her first.

_ 20 Shaded Nights opened the chat _

_ SoS has joined the chat _

_ ShadedN: Get in the chat right now, you have to see this! _

_ SoS: what? what’s going on? _

_ ShadedN: I’ll ask for you when you get there just go! _

_ SoS left the chat _

Both curiosity and a sense of confusion led her to check it out.

_ SoS has joined the chat _

_ ShadedN: Right, Right, she’s here can someone explain what just happened? _

_ SNO: Ace came inand said he was done with life, wedon’t know what he’s going to do but everyone’s panicking and I think it’s great. Ace was always so boring. _

_ PkStar: OWL! HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT! _

_ SNO: What? It’strue. _

_ BloodyRain: Owl. Shut Up. Even if I’m Curious about if it Works or not, I'm still worried for him. _

_ TempStor: I really want to know what’s going on, too far away though. _

_ PkStar: Who’s closest? To him? _

_ ShadedN: I think Sliver, yes they’re still very far apart but she’s still closer to him physically than anyone else _

_ SoS: i am? _

_ TempStor: Great! Sliver do you think you could take a look? _

_ ShadedN: I could send one of my birds over if she doesn’t want to, they can check it out _

_ TempStor: Birds? What do you mean by Birds? _

_ ShadedN: Vultures I shoved an overseer into and I can control, I can control them without the overseer but it just means I can see through it. I can’t send them very far away, like to the industrial group, I lose control of them then _

_ TempStor: I am very confused but can one of you please take a look, I’m going to talk to Goldie, let her know what’s going on with Ace because she was doing something else when he said that. _

_ TempStor has left the chat _

_ SNO has been kicked _

_ ObiDust: Finally figured that out _

_ PkStar: Oh you’re the one who sets these up, nice to see you. _

_ ObiDust: Really? I would have thought otherwise _

_ SoS has left the chat _

Curious about this Dust as she was, Tempest was probably counting on her and Nights to get some information about Ace. So she sent one of her overseers around, down her can and to the outside, it was a wetlandsy place, more damp than what she was expecting from looking at her garden most of the time. Anyways she had to find her overseers way to Ace, much easier said than done for an Iterator who had almost never sent her overseers outside because she was content with her garden.

It was very confusing outside, no rhyme or reason to the growth, Sliver prefered her garden more but she didn’t need her preferences.

There weren’t many creatures from what her overseers saw, which made more sense to her, most probably were up in her garden where it was nicer than the marsh,  _ safer too _ she thought as one of her overseers was very nearly destroyed by a rotting tree that fell.

It wasn’t helping that she had no idea what direction Ace even was in relation to her, all she had to go off of was that Nights said that he was closer to her than the others were. They were all really far away in her opinion, and she had no idea which one was the closest. The most she could do was have her overseers look up and hope to see a vulture overhead that would lead her to Ace’s location.

Unfortunately no bird overhead would come to her aid, so she let them wander on their own for a bit, maybe they’d be more successful at finding Ace on their own, she’d just check up every once and a while. Meanwhile she would just look at her puppet’s room, it was decorated with dried flowers hanging from the ceiling, the gatherers had given them to her and she didn’t know what else to do with them. Her whole room was decorated with planty stuff, that or things the lizard or gatherers brought her, like a very nice rock on a string hung up with empty pearls.

Now that she looked around her room had mostly rocks and flowers and moss in it but that was fine by her, it looked nice, yes it was a little dark because some of the light was blocked, but it was also really pretty so she didn’t care. It was like her garden but where she could see it without feeling weird.

Alright, it had been a couple minutes and Sliver decided to check her overseers and found one was by a can. Surprised that her idea worked she looked it around, it was still really swampy but it was not her can, she only knew that it was not her can because there wasn’t the signs of her gatherers having made their way up and down many times.

She didn’t have any evidence that it was Aces’ but she didn’t have any opposing evidence that it wasn’t his after all. It took a bit of finding to get the overseer in the can, rooting around small tunnels likely made by the resident’s overseers.

Once Sliver could see inside she wasn’t immediately shocked or anything, it looked normal, like her own a bit, there were even neuron flies filtering about. If anything the lack of anything strange made her curious, moving her overseer up through the can to look around, there were pearls scattered about, most of them a sort of light red color. She was very curious about those pearls but figured that they were private probably, she couldn’t even get to them though so she’d never know for certain.

Up at a certain point there was a reflective surface, not quite like a mirror but it caught her attention like an actual mirror likely would, she stared into it, looking at her overseer with it, a sort of green color like her cloak. She was enraptured by her overseers’ reflection, it was probably one of the more interesting things in the room of the can, and she was just looking at it.

She probably would have kept looking at it for a very long time if another overseer didn’t come into hers’ line of sight, a light blue color. Hers’ looked at it and it looked at hers’, a while of staring ensued before the blue one put one of its tendrils forward, inviting something Sliver wasn’t sure of, she’d never really seen another overseer with one of hers, the others never really got close enough.

With a dabble of hesitance, she let her curiosity win and set one of hers onto the extended tendril. There was a lot of noise that wasn’t noise for a moment before Sliver ‘heard’ something, which she wasn’t sure of but it sounded like something that was both there and not. It took a beat for her to notice that it was a voice.

“Sliver? Are you Sliver or someone else.” Was what the voice asked and at first Sliver wasn’t sure how to respond, she’d never done this before, though she knew what she wanted to respond with. “Take your time, it’s not everyday this happens and most don’t know how to speak through their overseers at first.”

“Krf, yen, Yes. Yes I am Slver.” She tried, it wasn’t very intuitive, and she got some of the words wrong, including her own name. But the other voice seemed pleased.

“Great, hi. It’s nice to finally talk to you outside of a chat Sliver.”

“Who are you? I don’t have the best idea of who you are though.”

“Oh! It’s me, Nights. Also we should probably keep looking for Aces’ room, should be around here somewhere.” And with that she disconnected her overseer’s tendril from Slivers’ before moving it away to a different location.

Nights! So this was the right place, she wanted to talk to Nights more but that could wait, now that she thought about it, it was strange that she hadn’t seen one of Aces’ overseers so far, hers were scattered about her can, making sure her personal pearls were kept safe from the gatherers and their interest in them. It felt strange now that she realised it, so empty.

With a sweep of the area Sliver whisked her overseer away to continue searching. Her puppets’ room was around the bottom of her can, closer to the ground, but it didn’t seem like Aces’ was. She saw Nights’ overseer a few times while they looked around, though she flickered hers’ away relatively quickly after being spotted, leaving Slivers’ alone in the room.

Eventually Nights’ overseer appeared close by hers, offering a tendril. Which Sliver readily accepted. The same buzz of false noise filled her head before she heard Nights.

“I found Aces’ puppet! It looks fine for now and that means he is as well.”

“Could I see?” Sliver responded, wanting to be able to check up on Ace on her own, without needing Nights’ help again, though she’d like to hear her again.

“Follow my overseer.” With that the connection was tugged away and Nights’ overseer flickered into the ground, though it was possible to follow.

When her overseer emerged next she could see into Aces’ puppets’ room, it was a sort of neat place, though also messy, it just didn’t look like it was upkept. The puppet in the room had a red cloak, and looked to be reading a pearl, not looking up at the ceiling where the two overseers were watching. Sliver held out one of the overseers tendrils first, and she didn’t hear the static noise when they touched this time.

“I wonder what he’s reading on that pearl, it’s not his color.” Sliver said, and it was a different color, more of an orangey color.

“Me too, but he looks fine doesn’t he? I really wonder what he was talking about in the chat when he said that, as well as where his overseers are.”

“That last thing especially, Mine are usually just hanging around my can. I don’t look outside much.”

Nights’ overseer looked at hers more closely. “Would you like to see the world with my bird? You really should see you in relation to the others, it took you a long while to get here.”

Sliver answered almost immediately. “Yes please!”

Nights chuckled a bit before saying, “Come on up to the top of Aces’ can, my bird’s up there. I’ll be waiting.” And breaking the connection and leaving. Sliver took one last look at Aces’ puppet before moving her overseer to the abandoned residence of Aces’ can, and seeing the bird soon after.

It looked like any ordinary vulture, aside from the fact that it didn’t appear to have eyes and was sitting on the ground. When her overseer came into view it lowered its head to the ground, in a way that would allow her to set the overseer where one of its eyes would be. While it felt a bit weird when she thought about it too hard, seeing the world from above with Nights felt too appealing at the moment. Sliver moved her overseer into one of the eye holes.

The vultures’ head remained down for some reason, which she soon saw was to allow Nights’ overseer into the other eye hole. When they were both in the vultures’ eye sockets it looked up, or rather Nights had it look up, she must have had better control over it when she could see out of it because its movements were more fluid now.

Sliver was keeping her overseer tucked behind the mask, at least until Nights had it fly, she’d never seen behind a vultures’ mask before. The takeoff was slow at first, as it had been at a resting position for presumably a long time, but the bird soon vaulted up into the sky quickly and Sliver poked her overseer out to see. The ground was so far below them her overseer slunk back out of reflex.

At a more stable elevation Nights’ overseer poked out of the mask as well, probably to enjoy the view. It was nothing like Sliver had seen before, yes she’d looked out from the top of her can but that was short compared to how high up they were now, she could see so far. Her can was easily spotted, the garden was unmistakable.

She had hardly noticed when Nights connected their overseers again.

“This is great right?” She had asked, and it took a long while for Sliver to respond.

“Yeah. So, could you tell me who’s who? I can tell my can apart from the others just fine but I’m not sure about them.” Sliver replied, and she heard Nights laugh in her soft sort of way before speaking again.

“All right, so,” She set the bird to a slow glide so she could point everyone out, ”The can by the sinkhole is me, the one by the river is Wisdom, that one with a tree growing up the side is Rain, the more coppery one is Victor. The pale one is Star, and I think the one we’re above right now is Owl. Oh! Yeah that pinky one over there by the other sinkhole is Shard.”

“Where’s Tempest?”

“Further away, a little outside the swamp we’re in. I’ve flown a bird over there to check it out and it turns out they have a little menagere on top of their can, none were too pleased when my bird got close. I’ll take your overseer back before telling everyone that Ace looks fine, and just in case I brought two over to keep an eye on him.”

With that she turned the bird towards Slivers’ can, it was fairly quick and before she knew it the bird was on the ground next to her can.

“Thank you Nights, I’ll be seeing you in the chats I think, thank you.” She said before leaving the bird, Nights’ overseer did a little bob before tucking behind the mask again, giving the vulture the appearance of having a blue eye, and taking off again.

Sliver didn’t want to speak to the others right now, she was going to savor that moment for the rest of her life and right now she was going to do nothing consciously but think about what had just happened. Out of her attention, the Shaded Shanas in her garden were blooming in brilliant blues and violets, sheltering the 2 snakecats of her garden as they slept peacefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so like, this is going to require tag updates.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat Shenanigans happen.

Sliver couldn’t remain alone forever from her fellows, it was raining again when Nights contacted her. She was unaware of how long it had been but most likely a few hours.

_ 20 Shaded Nights opened the chat _

_ SoS has joined the chat _

_ ShadedN: Is everything alright? _

_ ShadedN: Cause you’ve been quiet for a while _

_ SoS: yeah. _

_ ShadedN: Dust’s cool, apparently she’s underground or something _

_ SoS: underground? _

_ ShadedN: I know right? An inverted iterator, at least that’s what she called herself _

_ ShadedN: Anyways she’s the one who has the capability to open up public chats and has been _

_ ShadedN: Doesn’t have a lot to do according to her _

_ ShadedN: Anyways she’s interesting _

_ SoS: how so? _

_ ShadedN: How she talks in the chat, just, go in and see _

_ ShadedN has left the chat _

Now Sliver was curious, and since she didn’t get an answer from Nights it was inevitable that she would go in and see for herself.

_ SoS has entered the chat _

_ BloodyRain: What Was That? _

_ ObiDust: What this? OwO _

_ BloodyRain: No the Other one. _

_ ObiDust: Oh the Shrug?  _ _ ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ _

_ BloodyRain: How do you Do that? _

_ ObiDust: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ _

_ GoldVic: Do you have a full name or just the screen name? _

_ ObiDust: Why you asking? It’s just Obsidian Dust though nothing special UwU _

_ PkStar: ; 3 _

_ ObiDust: OwO _

_ ShadedN: I am so confused _

_ ShadedN: And I have so many questions _

_ GoldVic: So do I _

_ TempStor has joined the chat _

_ TempStor: Hey. _

_ ObiDust: Hewwo _

_ TempStor: Goldie? _

_ GoldVic: Yeah? _

_ TempStor: Do you know whats’s going on? _

_ GoldVic: No. _

_ BloodyRain has left the chat _

_ SoS has left the chat _

She didn’t leave for the reason she thought Rain might have, she was laughing. Sliver wasn’t sure why but she found the way Dust talked very funny, even though she didn’t really understand. She suspected Star did though, if the thing he did was any evidence.

It was only now that she was out of the chat that Sliver realised how warm she was, which was surprising because she was normally very in touch with her limits and this felt like a record temperature. Her laughing died quickly as a slow creep of worry spread over her mind, shrouding everything else under the Kudzu-like density.

In an attempt to calm herself down and maybe lower her temperature by proxy, Sliver reached her puppet up to one of the empty pearls tied to the ceiling of her room, took it off the string it was tied to, and began recording her thoughts in it. As she did, the pearl began to take on a green hue. When the pearl was full, it looked like a faintly glowing green fruit, at least that was how Sliver would describe it.

Filling the pearl had taken a lot of time, and in that time, several creatures that lived in her garden had come down to investigate, and subsequently fallen asleep on the mossy floor, there were a few gatherers, the lizard, and one of the snakecats. Sliver was confused until she listened and heard the rain still pounding down to the ground.

Sliver moved her puppet closer to the lizard, who was already close to her to begin with, she was just holding her puppet up above them. The lizard stirred quietly as her puppet drew close, opening its eyes and making a sort of sigh noise. Sliver set her puppet in a sitting position and the lizard sort of rolled halfway onto her lap.

Sliver wasn’t sure what to do now, so with her puppets hands on the lizard, which had gone back to sleep, Sliver decided to go back into a chat.

To her surprise, there was two where there was typically only one, Dust’s chat as she now knew. This new one had a label, ‘Rain’s Sanctuary from Dust’s Shenanigans’ and the other one had a name as well, ‘Dust’s Shenanigans to combat Rain’s Sanctuary’. It seemed to Sliver that the two didn’t get along.

Because she was kinda conflicted on which one to check out first, Sliver decided to see if Nights wanted to chat and contacted her.

_ Sliver of Straw opened the chat _

_ SoS: niiiiiights! _

_ SnadedN has joined the chat _

_ ShadedN: Yeah? _

_ SoS: what happened while I was out? _

_ ShadedN: Well Dust talked a bit more and we reacted in general confusion, aside from Star for some reason _

_ ShadedN: Then we noticed that Rain had made her own chat and named it that _

_ ShadedN: Dust decided to rename her chat that in retaliation _

_ ShadedN: Oh also Star accidentally figured out how to change nicknames _

_ ShadedN: He was ‘UwU what’s your problem?’ for about 10 minutes _

_ SoS: wow. how’d he do it by the way? _

_ ShadedN: You put an n and an ! right next to each other and then the nickname, it took a while before we figured that out though. _

_ SoS: what happened after the chat name changes and Star changing his nickname? _

_ ShadedN: Some others left for the other chat, Victor and Tempest definitely left for it, pretty sure Shard will once he checks both of them out, I'm not sure about Owl. Wisdom will probably go into either when they feel like it. I have no preference but right now I like Rain’s chat, you’ll probably find me in there most often _

_ SoS: i’ll check out Dust’s first, then Rain’s _

_ ShadedN: I’m pretty sure Dust’s is pretty wild, but I haven’t been in for the past 25 minutes _

_ SoS has left the chat _

With that tidbit of information, Sliver could more easily decide which one to hang out in, but first, the rain was ending, and she felt like doing something nice. The lizard was a bit of an inconvenience but picking them up with one arm, Sliver could grab another pearl and put the other one back on the string.

On that pearl, she put the information about nicknames and how they worked. It was only a pale shade of green when she was done, but she felt accomplished for doing it with only one of her puppet’s hands. Slowly lowering her puppet so as to not disturb the lizard, she nudged one of her gatherers, they were already awake but she needed to get their attention.

“I need you to take this to the Iterator known as Ace, they have a red color and are close-ish by.” She told them, and they held the pearl in their paw hands, looked at it, and nodded before leaving, presumably to give it to Ace. Sliver liked to hope that the gatherers listened to her, she provided them shelter, and in turn they did what she asked, now she could only wait.

But it the time she was waiting, why not check out Dust’s chat?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm expecting about 2 reactions to Dust, 1 being that she's a memelord and the other being that she is Cursed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see Dust's chat and some other things.

_ SoS has joined the chat _

_ PkStar: Hewwo again UwU _

_ MemeQueen: Hewwo Sliver, nice of you to join us UwU. _

_ SoS: is memequeen Dust? _

_ MemeQueen: Ye _

_ ShadedN has joined the chat _

_ ShadedN: Dust did you block Owl from this chat? She’d yelling about how she can’t get on this one in Rain’s _

_ MemeQueen: Ye, I don’t have a grudge against Rain Imma tell her how to do it in case she wants to. _

_ MemeQueen has left the chat _

_ PkStar: So hows your evening you two _

_ SoS: fine _

_ ShadedN: I’m doing alright _

_ ShadedN: You? _

_ PkStar: Im doing great Dust is my people _

_ ShadedN: I’m going to go back to Rain’s chat have, a good time _

_ PkStar: By _

_ ShadedN has left the chat _

_ KryShar has joined the chat _

_ KryShar: What’s up? _

_ MemeQueen has joined the chat, all hail the Queen _

_ MemeQueen: For me, dirt. Hewwo Child _

_ KryShar: What do you mean by Child! _

_ MemeQueen: Well you are younger than me. _

_ KryShar: Are you seriously older than me?! _

_ MemeQueen: Ye, I was privy to the plans of your construction, everyone else is older than you. Child _

_ MemeQueen has changed KryShar’s nickname to Angry Child _

_ Angry Child: Who’s the oldest?! _

_ MemeQueen: In order. Wisdom, followed by Sliver than me, Owl is the next oldest, Rain’s next, then Nights, Star, Tempest, then Ace, and you at last. Ace is only like a few weeks older than you, Stop bullying him. _

_ Angry Child: He’s an easy target! _

_ MemeQueen: You and Owl would get along great. _

_ PkStar: They dont _

_ PkStar: they always argue if they have to talk for more than 3 messages _

_ MemeQueen: This got heavy. Let’s play a game. We each say a word and have to make a story in order. _

_ MemeQueen: The order will be Star, Sliver, Shard, then me. Ok? _

_ SoS: ok _

_ PkStar: Ye _

_ Angry Child: Sure whatever. _

_ PkStar: Once _

_ SoS: upon _

_ Angry Child: That _

_ MemeQueen: Dank _

_ PkStar: River _

_ SoS: there _

_ Angry Child: This is dumb. _

_ Angry Child has left the chat _

_ MemeQueen: Lame _

_ SoS: sorry i’m going to go too, bye. _

_ PkStar: Bye _

_ SoS has left the chat _

Sliver didn’t really want to leave, Dust’s chat seemed great to her, though she was a little confused about why she thought that. It to check on her garden. Sliver had had a nagging feeling about something being up with her garden for a little while now, it had started a little around when Dust had listed the order of everyone from oldest to youngest.

Looking through her overseers, Sliver didn’t see anything wrong at first, yes they were a little dried out and she should probably water them soon, but nothing too bad, until she saw that something had been uprooted. A lot of other plants had probably been harmed when something dug up a flower bush, it was in a central location where mycelium networks were bunched up.

There were a few gatherers that were already trying to fix it by replanting it, the bush looked mostly whole except for the roots, which had been ripped off, leaving only nubs of roots left attached to the plant. Sliver didn’t think it would be likely that the flower bush would survive, but there was definitely a chance for its survival.

Right now Sliver was concerned about what had done it, and if it would uproot something again. Now that she was on alert, she noticed torn leaves, disturbed soil, it was without the grace and subtlety of her Gatherers so that ruled them out. The uprooting looked mostly recent so that ruled out the lizard, which was contentedly sitting on her puppets lap, making a sort of purring noise.

Sliver contemplated the mystery of what could have done it while she began to water her garden, it was covered by a reinforced glass dome which left the inhabitants safe from the rain, however it also kept out the necessary moisture that her garden needed to thrive. So there were sprinklers rigged into both the dome and ground. It was an ingenious design if she thought so herself, but she wasn’t right now because she was paying close attention to see if anything would come out for the “rain”, however only the snakecats did, the gatherers were probably used to it and knew that it wasn’t the deadly outside rain.

Sliver suspected them for 5 seconds before she saw their paws, which looked totally useless for digging and instead made for gripping, and as far as Sliver was aware they didn’t know how to make digging tools, yet at least. They were clever creatures and she suspected it only being a matter of time before they figured it out.

With no clear suspects Sliver had to drop the investigation for now, but she’d keep an overseer up there, just in case it spotted something.

With that underway, all that was left was to wait and see.

Sliver was surprised to get a private chat request from Ace, it seemed like he had gotten her pearl.

_ Ace of Hearts opened the chat _

_ SoS has joined the chat _

_ Flafe changed their nickname to FlamingAce _

_ FlamingAce: THANK YOU SLIVER!! THANK YOU SO MUCH I CAN NEVER THANK YOU ENOUGH!!! _

_ SoS: you’re welcome Ace. _

_ FlamingAce: You are the best person out of all our group, well, maybe Wisdom is better but they hardly talk so you are defacto best iterator! _

_ SoS: thank you, i only did what i thought you needed. _

_ FlamingAce: If I could hug you I would, if there’s anything you need help with let me know, I’d be glad to help. _

_ FlamingAce has left the chat. _

That gave Sliver a good feeling, that Ace was grateful to her, though his thanks was a bit much for her, a simple thank you of acknowledgement would have been enough. But the offer of help was an interesting one, she doubted that he would know what had dug up the flower bush, which she now suspected were some sort of new growth because she hadn’t recognised the flowers, but the thought was appreciated. Sliver knew she had gained a friend, and it was next on her priorities to check out Rain’s chat.


	6. Chapter 6

_ SoS has joined the chat _

_ ShadedN: Hey welcome! _

_ BloodyRain: Hello Sliver. _

_ SoS: hi. _

_ SoS: is it just us right now? _

_ BloodyRain: Yeah the others had Things to do so we’ve just been chatting _

_ SoS: what about? _

_ ShadedN: Nothing in particular _

_ ShadedN: Anything going on with you? _

_ SoS: something dug up a flower bush in my garden so that’s odd. _

_ ShadedN: Hmm? _

_ ShadedN: You don’t know what? _

_ SoS: yeah. _

_ ShadedN: No clues whatsoever? _

_ SoS: none. _

_ BloodyRain: Maybe ask Tempest when They get on next? _

_ SoS: why Tempest? _

_ BloodyRain: They Know lots about Animals and stuff. A talking Encyclopedia about Many Different species. _

_ SoS: huh, maybe i will ask them. _

_ SoS: so, any idea when they’ll get on next? _

_ ShadedN: Not really _

_ SoS: ok, thanks anyways. _

_ BloodyRain: You could Always send a Private Chat Request to Them. _

_ SoS: i’d be too nervous to do that. _

_ BloodyRain: Understandable. _

Silence stretched on in the chat, and Sliver decided to use this moment to take a look at her garden. It was one of those rare times when it was night but also not raining, as the rains usually came at nightfall.

Through her overseers, Sliver could see the stars that spanned the sky. She understood why Star was named after them, they were a beautiful and rare sight nowadays.

While watching these stars, something felt off. Like there was something else watching her overseer. With a twinge of nervousness Sliver shone a light with her overseer around, the light shone upon the sleeping forms of Gatherers that didn’t rest inside the can, the lizard with what looked like scraps of a scavenged corpse scattered about, the little lizard had to eat after all.

All seemed well until she turned the light to another direction, Sliver had only half a second to react to something black as void material lunging for the overseer. She didn’t react quickly enough, and the overseer was destroyed.

Sliver just hung her puppet limp in shock and disorientation, never before had something broken one of her overseers while she was observing through it before. It felt… weird and wrong. It didn’t hurt but it wasn’t a pleasant feeling either. She didn’t like the feeling enough to hold back on sending another overseer up to her garden just to prevent maybe feeling it again.

After a few minutes of just, doing nothing, Sliver became aware of the chat becoming active again.

_ TempStor has joined the chat _

_ TempStor: Hello everyone. Hope you all are having a good night. _

_ ShadedN: Its nighttime? _

_ SoS: yeah, it’s a clear night, i just had a look while everyone was all quiet. _

_ SoS: by the way, Tempest can i ask you something? _

_ TempStor: Go for it. _

_ SoS: how many creatures do you know of that eat or tear up roots? something did that in my garden and i’d prefer for it to not be in my garden if it will eat the roots of my plants. _

_ TempStor: The variety of Slugcat around here do eat roots but I take it you don’t have many. _

_ SoS: there’s two living in my garden but they haven’t shown evidence of doing that, mainly my gatherers haven’t tried to kill them and they tend to try doing that to creatures that harm my garden. _

_ TempStor: They only eat roots when they’ve reached the limit of what the local food will provide for them, and I think two’s well below that. Do you have any other clues? Because there’s a lot of potential root eaters. _

_ SoS: something I couldn’t make out just killed one of my overseers so that might have been it. _

_ ShadedN: Oh darn sorry to hear that about your overseer _

_ TempStor: What could you make out about it? Even a color could narrow it down quite a lot. _

_ SoS: it was black and only attacked when I shone a light on it. _

_ TempStor: Nothing I know about fits that description. I am intrigued about this new creature. _

_ BloodyRain: Well That Sucks, all us girls were Hoping You’d know something about this. _

_ ShadedN: Yeah anything that could have helped Sliver would have been nice _

_ TempStor: But I’d like to learn about it, add it to my collection and study it. _

_ BloodyRain: How would you Even get it Back to Your can from Sliver’s? She’s So Far Away from you. _

_ TempStor: I’d find a way. _

_ ShadedN: Would you like me to take an overseer or two of yours over to Sliver’s can? _

_ TempStor: Absolutely yes. _

_ TempStor: It’s always a delight looking down at the ground from your birds. _

_ ShadedN: Give me a minute and I’ll have one flying over to your can soon enough _

_ TempStor: Thank you Nights. _

_ ShadedN: You’re welcome _

_ Ace has joined the chat _

_ Ace: Hi _

_ TempStor: Ace! Hi! _

_ Ace: Hello Tempest _

_ Ace: Nights, when you have the next opportunity I’d like to ask you to remove your overseers from my can. I can’t guarantee that they’ll still be ok if you leave them in my can. _

_ ShadedN: What do you mean by that? _

_ Ace: I’m doing things that apparently really mess up overseers, most of the ones I had are destroyed from what I’ve been doing, and making new ones is a real hassle you know? _

_ SoS: wait you can make more of them? please tell me how. _

_ Ace: Oh hello Sliver. You kinda just, you know what? I’ll just send you a pearl, ok? _

_ SoS: ok. _

_ Ace: Great :) _

_ BloodyRain: Oh by the Ancients what’s That. _

_ Ace: It looks like a smile. _

_ BloodyRain: That’s ok but you’re on Thin As Heck Ice if you do some of that other stuff Dust’s been doing. _

_ Ace: Dust? Never heard of them before. _

_ SoS: go to the other chat if you’d like to meet her, i think she’s great, Star does as well. _

_ Ace has left the chat _

_ SoS: i’m going to leave now as well, been nice chatting with you all. _

_ SoS: oh yeah, see you soon Tempest. _

_ SoS has left the chat _

Now it was time to play the waiting game, to wait for Tempest’s overseer to arrive as well as Ace’s pearl. Well, Sliver had a lot to look forward to now that was for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry this took so long, current events have been a real kicker but hey, I got this chapter done eventually.


End file.
